Ghosts
by offcolor.darkrai
Summary: Optimus could see them, hear them, feel them within his spark. He didn't know what they were, or why they clung to him, of all mechs. He wasn't even sure they were really there. But, to him, they were real. It was too bad the others couldn't share this pleasure, but to them there was nothing there. Only he could see them; these visitors, these visions, these ghosts.


_**Ghosts:**__ Optimus could see them, hear them, feel them within his spark. He didn't know what they were, or why they clung to him, of all mechs, he wasn't even sure they were really there. But, to him, they were real, as real as any of the human children. They smiled at him, spoke to him, gave him hope. It was too bad the others couldn't share this pleasure, but to them there was nothing there. Only he could see them; these visitors, these visions, these ghosts._

_0o_

The first one he saw was in the med-bay.

The grumbling Autobot medic was bustling around, running scans, checking data, and switching between a wide assortment of tools as he performed various tests to verify the wellbeing of his patient. Optimus silently watched him, laying still on the med-berth he'd woken up on. Ratchet came over and ran another scan over a fresh weld on Optimus' shoulder.

"Honestly, I never should have let you go alone. At least thirty cons in some cramped cavern where you couldn't comm for backup. We should have waited for the others to return, sent Arcee with you, or Bumblebee. I should have sent them after you, or I should have gone, I…"

Ratchet was stopped by Optimus' servo on his shoulder. He looked down at his injured Prime, who in turn gently shook his helm.

"It is not your fault, old friend." He said calmly. "You could not know what was down there."

Optimus repressed a small shudder as he mentally completed his sentence.

'And I wish I could forget.'

_Optimus found himself in a vast cavern, bathed in eerie greenish light. He'd followed a stray signal down there, one Ratchet had picked up on the monitors, but couldn't pinpoint. He was alone; the others had been off retrieving their charges, so he'd gone in their stead, against the protests of their medic. He'd arrived at the site via ground-bridge, a vast underground cave system, and slowly worked his way through the twisting maze of tunnels, down to where even his internal comm signal flickered out. If he ran into trouble there would be no way to call for back-up, not that he had been expecting any. That was, until he'd spotted an eerie, unnatural glow down one of the long tunnels, and followed it to its source._

_He stood there, gazing about at the clearly not natural features that decorated the cavern. Computers, machinery, cables of every size, all interconnected with vast, cybertronian sized tubes that were the source of the glow. At least thirty of them, lining the walls of the cavern, their sides coated in a thick layer of fog. Their dimly glowing contents cast the whole place into half shadow, creating strange patterns and shapes along the walls._

_Optimus approached one, his blaster out, shifting his gaze about, searching for any possible attackers. When he was satisfied he was alone he placed a servo on one of the tubes. It was warm, much warmer than the cool air of the cavern. He paused to consider it, what on Earth it could be doing here. After a time he gently he wiped the fog from the tube's exterior, a warry sense of curiosity causing him to peer inside._

_A second later he recoiled violently, a strangled sound escaping his vocal processor. The image of the tube's interior seemed to be burned into his processor. Of all the depraved horrors he'd seen in his long life-cycle, this—THIS…! _

_He could see the other tubes from the corners of his optics, all the same. Never in his life-cycle had he felt such an overwhelming urge to purge his tanks. This place was wrong, all wrong! He needed out, a feeling akin to claustrophobia creeping into his circuits, but before he could move he heard voices. He couldn't discern who they were, but they were approaching fast. Optimus fought down his revulsion and hid among the tubes, back-plates pressed against the machinery that inter-connected the horrid apparatus._

_The voices entered the cavern from a different direction than where Optimus had come in, their harsh whispered tones now perfectly clear. Starscream, and some Vehicons, Optimus guessed. They were speaking about the tubes, and their contents; all of it was some sort of sick experiment. Optimus felt a swell of rage boil up within him. How dare they! But he pushed it back down with all of his might. He did not want to be caught here, especially since he couldn't call for back-up. He pushed himself as far back as he could into the small pocket of space he'd secreted himself in, now glad for the foggy exterior of the tubes hiding him from searching optics._

_The Decepticons' voices were coming closer, and Optimus silently hoped they would stop before they reached him. Still he got into a ready stance as well as he could in the tight space. They kept coming, and Optimus heard more of their conversation. This place was Starscreams idea, a power play, Megatron did not know of it. That was good for Optimus; it meant if he had to fight then Starscream could only call in whatever troops he'd brought with him for support, he wouldn't call in any heavy hitters. _

_They were still moving in on Optimus' hiding place, forcing him to make a decision. He couldn't stay in this small space where he couldn't maneuver, they would box him in and he would be at Starscream's mercy. There was only one thing he could do. He loaded his blaster and took a calming vent, before lunging out into the open. He fired at the surprised Starscream and his Vehicon escorts, blowing away two out of the five as they struggled to draw their own weapons._

_Starscream cowered at first, but then regained his usual bravado when he realized it was only a single Autobot. He screeched at his remaining troops to attack as he commed for more. Optimus took a shot that forced the flier's attention back to him, locking on to a flickering comm signal as he did so. He sent out a distress call, hoping it went through as more Vehicons began to swarm the cavern and Starscream fired his missiles at the Prime. Optimus dodged one, fired back, and swiftly evaded the other. Neither he, nor Starscream seemed keen on shooting the glowing tubes around them, which Optimus used to his advantage. Starscream screamed something about Optimus being a coward, but Optimus didn't bother to listen. _

_Just then Starscream's reinforcements arrived, and Optimus opened fire on them. As he fired he slowly made his way to the area from which he'd entered, knowing there were no guards along the path he'd followed, and that he could possibly lose his pursuers along the twisted paths. He moved closer to his exit, trying to keep the Decepticons pinned down. He was focused on forcing a good ten or more of them back, when one of the surviving members of Starscream's original group decided to disregard his commander's previous orders, firing on Optimus while the Autobot stood a little too close to the glowing tubes. _

_Optimus saw the shot and dodged, allowing it to strike the tube next to him. The blast impacted the glass-like exterior, but didn't seem to cause too much damage, while the percussion from the blast knocked Optimus' balance off. In the brief second when he attempted to reclaim his footing, another Vehicon fired, catching him hard in the chest and throwing him back into the bank of machinery._

_Optimus felt millions of volts of electricity course through his frame, firing painfully through every circuit and wreaking havoc with his internal systems. It hurt, a lot, and to make matters worse the charge just seemed to build, pouring even more painful energy into Optimus. He tried to move, but most, if not all of his servo motors seemed to be locked in place, and the charge just kept increasing. Through blurred optics Optimus could see the lights within the cavern flickering madly as lightning arched across his frame, keeping his enemies at bay. Optimus tried to fight, to force himself through, but as the charge reached its zenith he couldn't hold his pain in any longer. He threw his helm back and released what he assumed was a scream, but he was unable hear it through the crushing wave of static that blanketed his audios. The lightning flared bright, blinding him, all of the energy releasing through him into the ground, the air, and anyone unfortunate enough to be within range._

_And then, almost instantly, it stopped._

_Optimus collapsed, unable to hear anything besides static, and barely able to see. He was dimly aware of fallen Decepticons around him, and of some of them slowly getting to their peds. He wanted to get up, but he felt paralyzed. Some of the Vehicons were up and already beginning to aim their weapons at him. He waited to feel their shots penetrate his armor, to take him offline while he couldn't fight back. _

_There was a bright flash, but not the flash of laser fire. It was the bright blue-green flash of a ground-bride portal, and the comforting sight of yellow, green, and blue armor. _

_The Vehicons switched targets, but didn't get time to fire, taken down by a blue and silver blur. Optimus saw green armor approaching him, hauling him to his peds. He smiled in reassurance, but was unable to hear what was said to him. He tried to stand on his own, but found himself incapable, feeling strong servos catch him as he began to fall and his whole system dropped into stasis._

Optimus had woken up in the Med-bay with Ratchet fussing around him. He did his best to assure his old friend that he was fine, but Ratchet was having none of it. Now, he lay there letting Ratchet verify for himself Optimus' state of wellbeing.

Optimus would have chuckled at his friend's hovering, if he didn't sympathize completely with what Ratchet was feeling.

He still remembered quite clearly the team's, mainly Ratchet's, reaction to the cyberbonic plague incident. Ratchet was obviously reliving that experience as well, all of them were, which was something Optimus greatly regretted. He would have loved to reach out and reassure them, even the children, but he feared he'd lost his ability to. He could offer words, vocal confirmations, but the tactile part was lost to him. No, the others wanted to assure themselves of his continued functioning, but they preferred to do so from a distance.

Optimus knew this, and had accepted it, which was why he still sat on the Med-berth. Seeing Ratchet grouse over him was calming for their nerves, and Optimus was completely willing to remain for their benefit. It was dull, though. Ratchet did not permit him to do much more than look about his surroundings, but it was better than nothing. He let his optics rove over the Med-bay, across the pile of tools broken by other bots, waiting to be fixed by Ratchet when he had the time, to the sparse cybertronian equipment salvaged by Ratchet when he'd come to this planet. He skipped over the monitor where Ratchet was standing, reading the repair data for what must have been the fifth time in less than an hour, running his gaze along the lines of the nearest wall and down to the shelf that was attached to the Med-berth, intended to hold the medic's tools.

And that was when he saw it.

At first he wasn't sure he was looking at anything, just a bare spot on the shelf, but the longer he looked at it the more it seemed there was something there. It was small, around one of the human's sizes, and thin. It was larger than Raf, but shorter than Jack. It stood there on its own two peds, or feet as the humans called them, long, thin appendages hanging at its sides. It had a long mane of light brown hair on its head, and two brilliant optics peered out from between the strands.

It took a second or two for the Prime to understand what he was looking at, processor, for some reason, unable to place it. Then it clicked as its optics, its eyes, locked with his.

He was staring at a human female.

She just standing there, on the medical shelf, watching him from the looks of it. As he looked at her, and her eyes caught on his she smiled. It was a frail smile, one used when one felt afraid and was trying desperately to hide it. The girl took a couple steps closer, her hands moving from her sides, one to clutch her shoulder, the other held out to the Prime.

Optimus did not know this female, or when she'd arrived on base. Had the others accidently revealed themselves again? If that was the case, then why was she not with them? She looked scared, and her hand was held out to him as if seeking comfort. Her eyes were filled with hidden pain, and they pleaded with him to help. Despite his obvious reservations, Optimus turned to her, wincing as he moved his injured shoulder, vaguely noticing the girl watching wince as well. He went to reach out to her, to offer what little comfort he could, but his movements had alerted Ratchet, who immediately turned toward his patient.

"Prime, you shouldn't be moving that shoulder! Do you want to reopen that seam?!"

Optimus shifted his attention to Ratchet, keeping the girl in the corner of his sight. She was now watching Ratchet as well, her expression still fearful, but curious.

"No, Ratchet." Optimus tried to sooth his irate Medic. He wanted to ask when the base had acquired another human companion, and to whom did she belong, but he knew better than to try and interrupt one of Ratchet's admonishing rants.

"And I certainly hope not! It's bad enough trying to fix up those younglings we call team members, they just can't seem to want to sit still, but I had hoped our Prime would be mature enough to listen to his medic. Honestly, I've patched you up enough times you should have learned by now." Ratchet was on a roll, all of his repressed worry over his friend and commander coming out as a wave of frustration and complaining.

Optimus waited patiently for the medic to get it all out of his system. It would ultimately be better for everyone if he did, and besides, the girl didn't seem to be going anywhere, though she did look a little apprehensive about Ratchet's yelling. Absentmindedly Optimus watched her watching Ratchet, her left hand slowly rubbing her right shoulder, her other tucked in the pocket of the blue jeans she was wearing. She seemed to sense Optimus watching her, and as she turned to him her apprehensiveness seemed to fade and she smiled once more. Optimus tilted his helm ever so slightly, curious about the girl's reaction.

"Optimus are you even listening to me!?"

Optimus blinked up at the medic who was suddenly standing over him, a little embarrassed to be caught 'zoning out' as he'd heard Miko call it once or twice. He readied his response, carefully choosing his words so as not to anger the medic even more, only for Ratchet to beat him to it.

"I know you are prone to staring off into space when deep in thought, but please try to keep your processor on the current conversation."

Staring into space? Now Optimus was confused, but he didn't show it. He wasn't staring off into space; he was looking at the new human female. Ratchet was still talking.

"Honestly, my medical-shelf is not interesting enough to hold your attention for that long, if you're going to drift off take a tip from the others and learn to be subtle about it."

It occurred to Optimus that Ratchet, for some reason or another, was blatantly ignoring the poor human, and he felt a small pang in his spark over this, and he turned to apologize to the female.

She wasn't there, the place where she stood was completely deserted.

Optimus felt a wave of confusion engulf him. Where did she go? The medical shelf was too high off the ground for a human to jump safely, and even if she had done so and not broken her legs, then he at least would have seen her. Ratchet spotted him looking at the shelf again, and this time seemed to assume his Prime was simply confirming the earlier statement that the shelf was not engaging enough to be a viable excuse for his attention to drift.

"You see what I mean?" Ratchet huffed good-naturedly as he went back to examining the data on the computer screen. "I am almost finished with you, and then you'll be allowed to leave, but I don't want you doing anything strenuous for at least the next week or so. Do you hear me Prime?"

Optimus nodded, even though his thoughts were still elsewhere.

"Yes, Old Friend."

0o

The second one he saw was by the monitors.

The others had rejoiced at Optimus' speedy recovery, his troops nodding and hiding their smiles, as the children shouted congratulations from across the room. Optimus had thanked them for their concern and they'd all smiled before walking away to attend to their own duties. Optimus wished to return to his normal duties as well, but Ratchet had still insisted Optimus remain on base, with the stipulation that he would be allowed out only when Ratchet was satisfied with his complete recovery, or in case of dire emergency, which ever came first. Optimus had not liked it, but had willingly agreed, and, since there was very little to do on base unless you were Ratchet, he'd been given monitor duty.

Half a week had gone by since his escapade in the caverns, and it had gone by slowly. The others, free to leave the base, had taken up the slack caused by his forced leave of absence from the field with little complaint. The children, now having less time with their guardians than they would have liked, had also taken it in their stride, though Miko was known to complain loudly of boredom from time to time. They would all say hello to Optimus anytime they arrived, and they would converse briefly in passing, before they wandered off once more and left him to his work. None of them had spoken of the strange female Optimus had seen the first day, and he had not seen her since. It was like she'd never been there in the first place.

Optimus scrolled silently through the endless flow of data incoming from the base's scanners, military surveillance, and the World Wide Web, waiting to be sorted through for any pertinent information. It was generally dull work, but not any more so than his work when he was an archivist. He couldn't deny that the work _was_ incredibly monotonous, but at least he had the correct disposition for it, unlike many of his troops. He was scanning through the entire mess for anything that may be of interest to them, when a small flicker of movement caught his optics.

He shifted his view toward it, and caught sight of a human standing calmly on the edge of the monitor's keyboard. Optimus took in this new human with no small amount of surprise. This was not the female he'd seen in the Med-bay, this human was male, taller than the female had been, and older, appearing to be what the humans called middle aged. He had dark hair, a pair of glasses, and was wearing a faded suit. He was staring up at the massive screen in front of him, but as Optimus attention fell on him the man seemed to feel it, turning his head slowly Optimus' direction and smiling lightly.

Optimus didn't smile back, he was still too confused by this human's presence. Where did he come from? He knew that no one had entered the base after the others had dropped off the children, and he had not arrived with them. He could not have come from Fowler, or the US military, because the proximity alarm had not gone off. And how did the man get up on the keyboard?

The male human was still looking at him, holding Optimus' optics with his own gaze. He drew Optimus' attention away from him and back to a corner of the monitor screen, pointing at one of the many seemingly irrelevant sites pulled in from the human internet. He gestured at it and, curious about the human's meaning, Optimus drew up and opened the site. It was a human's camping blog, seemingly inconsequential, if not for the slightly blurry photo on the main page. The blog owner had written of seeing what he thought was a family of bears in the dark, but even with the dark light, and the blurriness of the photo, Optimus could clearly perceive the jagged shapes of a squad of Vehicon troops. He checked the date on the post; it had been posted only a couple hours ago, and the area the camper claimed to be in was extremely mountainous, making it a possible place for a Decepticon energon mine.

"Ratchet, I may have found something." Optimus called, drawing the attention of the children as well. "Raphael," The small boy looked up, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Yes Optimus?"

"We will need you to remove this photograph."

Raf nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I can do that."

Optimus bowed his helm slightly in response, turning back to the keyboard consol to thank his strange companion.

The male human was gone.

0o

The third one he heard before he saw them.

Optimus was still on monitor duty, Ratchet's ban on his leaving the base still being strongly enforced. He hoped the medic would relent soon, because he longed to transform and go for a drive, allowing his mind to settle, and his body to work out any lasting tension from his injuries. Being cooped up in the base with nothing to task his mind to had caused Optimus' processor to become a bit overworked from the lack of focus. He needed a long, calming drive through the stark Nevada landscape, focus on driving, the scenery, anything besides the monitors and the grey base walls.

Optimus vented a small sigh, but no one was around to hear it. Bumblebee and Raf were out racing Raf's toy car, Bulkhead and Miko were doing something called 'dune bashing', and Jack and Arcee were just out enjoying each other's company. Ratchet and Optimus were the only bots on base at the moment, but Ratchet had stepped away to check on their energon supply. They'd taken quite a haul after they found that mine in the mountains, a stroke of good fortune only Optimus knew the source of.

He had seen neither the male, nor the female human since then, and none of the others said anything about new humans on base. Optimus had kept an optic out for them, just in case. They did not reappear, though he did occasionally see flickers in the corners of his optics, but when he looked for their source he couldn't find it. It puzzled him deeply, and he desired some form of answers. He did not let this puzzlement, however, impact his attitude, or his work, so, diligently, he continued sorting the data.

'_I walked across, and empty land…' _

Optimus stopped what he was doing as the clear sound echoed through the empty base.

_'I knew the pathway like the back of my hand…'_

He looked away from the computer monitor, audio fins perked at the noise.

_'I felt the earth, beneath my feet. Sat by the river and it made me complete.'_

It was a female voice, rising and falling like chimes on the breeze.

_'Oh simple things, where have you gone? I'm getting old and I need something to rely on…'_

Optimus looked down as the voice rang out from below him, and he spotted a small, pale form weaving around his peds.

'_So tell me when, you're gona let me in. I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin…'_

It was a human female, but not the first one. This one looked to be a little younger than Miko, with long blond hair, and pale skin. Her clothing was pale too, varying shades of pink and blue faded to almost white. She was singing, keeping the beat in tune with her steps while one hand was held out to catch herself should she fall, her thin fingers almost brushing Optimus' leg armor.

Optimus listened to her strange song, watching her spinning a figure eight between his peds. It was almost as if she were dancing, her steps light and her body swaying to a tempo only she could hear. She didn't look up, didn't give any indication she knew Optimus was watching, content to be moving around him, seemingly unafraid that he might suddenly shift and accidently crush her.

'_So if you have a minute why don't we go, talk about it somewhere only we know? This could be the end of everything, so why don't we go, somewhere only we kno…'_

She reached the climax of her song, but as she did her foot caught on something and she tripped. She fell forward with a gasp, grabbing on to Optimus' ped just as he reached down to steady her. She looked, surprised, between the black servo and the blue armor under her fingers, then she looked up into Optimus' glowing blue optics. She blushed violently and ducked her head, obviously embarrassed at being caught out singing. Concerned, Optimus retracted his hand, but allowed a smile to form on his face.

"You sing very well." He told her.

She looked up at him for a brief moment, before looking back down at her feet.

"Thank you." Optimus heard her whisper. He nodded, taking another small look at the female. She was being shy, but hadn't let go of his ped. He shrugged, going back to what he was doing before, not wanting to embarrass her further.

She stayed quiet for a time, and the only reason Optimus knew she was there was because she still hadn't lost her grip on his ped. After a while he heard her humming to herself, which gradually escalated, until she once more began to sing.

She stayed there, singing to herself, singing to him, her grip as strong as ever, until Ratchet returned from the back. The commotion he caused when he came in, griping in his usual manner, seemed to startle her, but before Optimus could even begin to reassure her, her hold finally released, and she was gone. Just like the others.

0o

He did not see any more until after Ratchet's ban had been lifted.

0o

The fourth and fifth appeared on the battle field.

A fight with a Decepticon patrol. Optimus was sent to the ground briefly by a stray shot causing a rockslide. As he lay there he'd felt something tugging on his armor. Small hands trying to both shift the rocks and shake him back into full consciousness. He blinked his optics back into focus. Two human males, around the same age, telling him to get back into the fight, pointing at where a rather bold Vehicon was trying to sneak around Arcee and shoot her in the back. Optimus obliged them, rearing back to his peds and running back into the fight.

As he'd expected, they were both gone by the time he got back.

0o

The sixth came during Optimus' turn for night watch.

Perched on the couch in the human's relaxation area, the human, another Male, kept Optimus company over his shift. He didn't talk all that much, and when he did it was only to ask a few simple questions. Optimus would answer, but refrained from asking any questions of his own. At some point the human drifted off to sleep, laying sprawled across the couch. Optimus left him to run a patrol of the base's halls. When he got back it was morning, and Ratchet had returned to his usual post.

Optimus didn't even bother to check if the couch was empty.

0o

The seventh and eighth were both females, one older, one younger, and they both arrived during one of Optimus' maintenance checks. Miko was in the human's area making an awful racket with her guitar, prompting Ratchet to go tell her off. That only made her play louder.

Optimus didn't notice the new presence until one of them began complaining about the horrible noise.

"Ugh, she says that's music? What is she, deaf?" The younger of the two clamped her hands over her ears.

"It's not too bad, believe me I've heard worse." The older one replied, though she had her hands over her ears as well. "Of course I wish she would turn it down a bit."

"A bit, try a lot! How can she hear herself think through all that?!"

Optimus was forced to cringe in agreement as a particularly loud screech echoed from the offending instrument, making his audios ring. From previous experience he knew Miko was only just warming up, and there was infinitely more auditory torture to come.

Needless to say the two women were long gone by the time Ratchet finally managed to quiet the horrendous noise.

0o

There were ten, all told.

The last two had materialized as Optimus took a rare break to watch the Earth's sun set, their tiny bodies coming up to stand on either side of him. A young adult male, and a female only slightly younger than him, both with very similar features. They must be related, Optimus mused, accepting their presence as he had with all the others.

He still didn't understand what was going on. He at first thought he might be hallucinating, but he could feel them, he reasoned, they seemed solid. He had hoped Ratchet's maintenance check would have turned up something, but the medic had giving him a complete bill of health.

Optimus glanced at the humans, but they stayed looking at the sunset. They looked real, they felt real, everything about them seemed real to him. So, he surmised, they must be really there then.

They watched the sun sink below the horizon, together, and, just as with all the others before, when Optimus stood to go inside he did so alone.

0o

The others could not see them.

Despite all the evidence pointing that direction, it still took Optimus some time before he realized this.

The humans seemed to be either shy, or afraid of the others. They were never inclined to appear whilst Optimus had company, only during the times in which he was alone, which were not as few and far between as one might have hoped. They would materialize in some of the most random places, usually close to where he stood. They were sometimes alone, sometimes with others. He'd once had four of them climb into his cabin while he was parked outside the base, and then they insisted on coming on patrol with him.

He'd had agreed simply because it was the first time half of them had spoken to him.

The humans' shyness was not reserved solely for the others either. Very few of them would speak to him at first. They would mill about his peds, or sit beside him as he rested, or pace back and forth across whatever surface he was standing at, but only a couple of them would open a conversation. Optimus responded whenever spoken to, answered any questions that he could, but he never tried to force them to speech. He allowed them their timidity, and over time it seemed to fade. They became bolder, the patrol incident was only the first, they liked to find such times when Optimus would be something generally mundane, alone, and then show up to keep him company.

Much to Optimus' surprise, they appeared to take delight in being near him.

They'd even grown so bold as to express the desire to sit on his shoulder, like the other bots would sometimes do with their human companions. He obliged, making sure when he did so not to move too suddenly, lest he knock them off by accident. Even if he was still a bit unsure of these humans' nature, be they real or not, he did not want to test what would happen should they fall from such a height. The humans assured him that they knew he'd never hurt them, by accident or otherwise, but to comfort his own fears they would be sure to have a firm grip on some part of his armor.

Optimus was working at the monitor, this time simply researching human culture, a pastime he rather enjoyed. He was alone in the room, so naturally he had visitors. The first human, the female, was perched on his shoulder, chatting with him as she gripped a piece of his audial fin. Down on the keyboard console was the fourth human, one of the young adult males from the battlefield. He was perusing the screen's contents as Optimus did, occasionally asking him to type something new into the search engine, or making some comment about the content displayed. Optimus was resisting the urge to chuckle at their antics, but had allowed a small smile to form on his faceplate.

All three of them were so absorbed in their interactions that they didn't hear one of the others enter.

"Hey Optimus, what's up?" A young voice rang out.

It startled the two humans into silence and almost caused Optimus to jolt. Almost. Optimus turned toward the voice, schooling his features into their usual neutral expression, and vaguely noticing the human on his shoulder, and the human on the console had not performed their usual disappearing act. Bumblebee stood there, slightly bouncing on his peds, while Raf balanced on his shoulder in a similar manner to the human on Optimus'.

"I am researching your human culture, Raphael." Optimus told them, gesturing at the screen. The female human on his shoulder was standing there very still, and Optimus could feel her body shaking slightly. He innocently wondered why the others had not mentioned her yet, or the male human standing there like, what was the human expression? Like a deer in the headlights, yes that was it.

"Wow, really?" Raf continued on, unaware of Optimus' thoughts. "That's, that's actually pretty cool."

Bumblebee buzzed in agreement. Optimus just nodded.

"yes. There is still much I don't understand about you and your planet, I aim to correct that."

He was struggling with resisting the urge to comfort the shaking female on his shoulder, or the absolutely terrified male on the console. He made as much compromise as he could though, moving one of his servos up along the keyboard, casually blocking most of the male human from view, while turning his upper body ever so slightly away from Bumblebee and his charge, trying to provide the female some cover as well.

"Alright then. Me and Bee are going to go out for a drive." Raf smiled, as Bee chirped in happiness.

They began to walk toward the exit, but as they passed close to Optimus they stopped and Bee reached up to put his servo on Optimus' shoulder.

The shoulder where the human female trembled, unable to move.

Optimus opened his mouth to warn Bumblebee off, but the scout's servo came down before he could. Optimus barely quelled his shock as the Scout's servo passed right through the female, who's eyes had widened considerably, her grip becoming like a vice on Optimus' audial. He could still feel her, her feet on his shoulder armor, her tiny body ready to quake itself apart she was shivering so badly. But at the same time he could feel the scout's servo patting his shoulder lightly.

"_I have no doubt you can do it sir. Once you get past the strangeness, humans aren't that hard to understand._" Bumblebee chirred, earning a light hearted smack from his companion.

Bee laughed and removed his servo, taking a small run as he transformed, Raf allowing himself to be caught up as the yellow muscle car pealed out. Optimus only watched them from the corner of his optics; he was more focused on the very startled female, as well as the male that had come out from behind his servo. Gently he reached up to comfort the obviously distraught female, carefully wrapping his fingers around her. She grasped at them, trying to pull them closer, tears beginning to fall from her eyes to splash on his armor. He frowned sympathetically at her distress and, after scooping up the male human as well, he held them both close to his chest-plate, right over his spark. The female continued to cry, her tiny hands trying to find a good hold on his plating while the male put one of his hands on her back, rubbing small circles, as his other hand gripped Optimus' plating as well.

He held them close, calming them as best he could.

That was the first time he ever saw them disappear, when the others had begun to return to base, and the two humans faded away in his arms.

0o

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Optimus asked calmly.

The first human was with him, this time alone, as they drove down a deserted road. Optimus had been sure to set aside scheduled alone time for the humans after the incident with Bumblebee. He did not want them to experience a situation like that again if he could help it. The whole experience, however, had also served to feed his deeply burning curiosity concerning his strange companions. This was what allowed him to bypass his usual discretion to finally question one of them, though he did so as non-forcibly as possible.

The female looked away from the scenery and down at his dash as the questions hung in the air around her. She seemed to think for a second, then she shrugged.

"I do not know."

"Do the others?"

Now the female shook her head.

"No."

Silence fell in the semi's cabin. The female didn't look upset by his questions, more of introspective, like she too was considering the questions, and the lack of answers.

"Do you not remember anything from before we met?" Optimus let his concern filter through his voice.

"I remember hurt, a lot of pain, then suddenly all the pain going away." The female looked half dazed as she related the story. "I remember the others, there, with me, and feeling safe and warm. I guess I blinked, or something, because one minute I was there, the next I was opening my eyes. My shoulder hurt, and I got scared again. I looked around, and I saw you there, looking at me. I could feel you, like I could feel the others still in the warm place. You felt like the warm place…" She trailed off, pressing herself firmly into his seats, closing her eyes. Optimus waited patiently for her to continue. After a long couple minutes her eyes opened again and she frowned.

"Your medic came in and scared me, and I found myself in the warm place again. It's nice there." She closed her eyes once more, and she rested her head on the seat back.

"Did the others have similar experiences?" Optimus asked in a low quiet voice, so as not to wake her if she'd fallen asleep.

"Yes." Was her simple reply. She kept her head back and her eyes closed, her breath even and calm.

"Nothing beyond that?"

"No."

Optimus paused, considering his next question. The female was being extremely compliant, and did not seem put out in the slightest by his questions, so he felt safe to proceed. The moment she displayed any discomfort, however, he told himself he would shut down his line of questioning, no matter how inquisitive he was.

He decided it would be fruitless to ask her anymore about how she'd gotten here, or even what she was doing here. If she claimed her memories didn't go back that far then it would be pointless anyway. Instead he decided to ask something else that'd been bothering him.

"Do you have names?"

Optimus had realized, along with his general lack of knowledge concerning his companions, he also had never heard their names. Whether this was an oversite on their part, or just an error on his, he wanted to make an effort to correct it.

The female was staring straight up, her lips pursed, as if she was trying very hard to remember something, her hands wrapping around the cross strap of her seatbelt. After a time she dropped her hands, but kept looking straight up, speaking to the ceiling of the cab rather than the dashboard.

"I don't remember, maybe…" She frowned, looking mildly unsettled. "I—I think I did, have one I mean, but I can't remember… The others can't either, I know…"

Seeing the look on her face Optimus clamped down on any other questions trying to exit his vocalizer and went to apologize.

"I am sorry, I didn't intend to upset you…"

The girl leaned forward, cutting him off by patting his dashboard lightly, then leaning over to wrap her arms around his wheel in a loose hug.

"It is alright…" She said, letting her voice trail off.

They spent the rest of the drive in quiet, companionable silence, only broken when Optimus' chimed with Ratchet requesting Optimus return. They'd apparently found another energon deposit. Optimus had agreed, before shutting down the link and giving his apologies to the female. She only smiled her understanding, her image gently fading away as Optimus moved through the swirling green and blue portal that had opened before him.

0o

Whether it was the previous conversation, or the fact the Energon had been found deep within a cave system, Optimus' memories decided to pay him a visit that night.

_He was surrounded by sickly greenish-yellow glow, bouncing off the cave walls but unable to reach the dark ceiling. Lines of cables and machinery stretching between rows and rows of tubes, all fogged with condensation, and humming with energy._

_Optimus looked around cautiously; this was clearly not what he'd expected to find down here._

_He tried to comm. Ratchet again, but the depth of solid earth above him blocked the signal. He let out a mental grunt of frustration as he silently peered around the cavern. This was obviously a cybertronian set up, and since the Autobots had not done this, it stood to reason that this, whatever this was, was perpetrated by Decepticons. _

_However none of them seemed to be here, he noted as he finished his scan of his surroundings. There were no guards, no commanders, nothing but the machinery and Optimus. Vaguely he wondered if there wasn't anyone because they believed this place was undetectable, or if they were just that cocky. He kept his blaster drawn regardless; you never knew when someone could come jumping out at you. _

_He moved slowly into the open, walking close to one of the mysterious tubes. What were these things? He could see energon, and some other substance pumped through them; that must have been the signal Ratchet picked up. Whatever was within must have been important if the Decepticons were willing to expend such a significant amount of energon on it. Optimus placed his free servo on the tube's exterior, feeling the sharp contrast between its internal temperature and the cave air around him. He followed the line of wires that wound their way out of it and made their way to the next one over, and then the next one after that, and onward. The tube he stood at appeared connected to the nine nearest, the wires becoming thick cables upon reaching a blocky looking machine that sat at about the half way point, before looping back out to tether the whole apparatus together._

_There were about thirty tubes that Optimus could see, and all of them were interconnected in this way into groups of ten, for some reason Optimus couldn't fathom. He glanced about for a computer terminal, something that could provide the desired information, but as soon as he spotted it on the other end of the cavern he was forced to nix the idea. Decepticons were well known to booby-trap their computer systems should any unsuspecting Autobot try to access them, or any other Decepticons trying to gain a power advantage._

_He looked back at the tube upon which his servo rested. He was unsure if he truly wanted to delve into its secrets. He'd seen and heard enough about Decepticon experiments in the war to be warry of whatever was inside the eerily glowing tubes, but he couldn't just leave them alone either. It was his duty, for the good of the Autobot cause, to discover what it was the Decepticons were planning, and, if possible, to destroy it before it could be used against his troops._

_Optimus double checked his surroundings, trying to make absolutely sure he was alone; he did not want to be caught off-guard suddenly while his attention was elsewhere. The cavern was still completely deserted, and he couldn't hear anyone approaching. He quickly shifted his optics to focus on where his servo was flat against the glass-like exterior of the tube. Slowly and carefully he wiped away the condensation, the glow intensifying as it escaped through the hole in the fog, bathing Optimus' face-plate as he bent down close to look inside. At first he couldn't see anything, so he removed more of the fog until there was a sizable clear patch and then he looked in again._

_There were wires and cables inside as well, twisting and curling down through the greenish-yellow liquid like long black tentacles. They halted a little below Optimus' optic level, forcing him to bend a bit to get a better look. They were connected to something that hung limply, only held upright by the cables themselves. It was small, not much bigger than Optimus's servo. Its natural exterior covering had been brutally stripped away, the cables and wires snaking their way in and out of what could have been called its limbs and torso. It was not Cybertronian, or metallic in anyway save the horrible wires that were attached to its internals; it almost looked organic. The shape of it struck Optimus as familiar, and as Optimus watched with a horrified fascination some bubbles moved upward through the liquid around the figure, disturbing it slightly and causing something attatched to what looked like it's head to float up as well. It looked like a cluster of very fine cables, but they were severed not far from the things head, and it took Optimus a beat to realize what it really was._

_It was hair._

_It all clicked and Optimus heard the startled noise escape him as he recoiled, but didn't give it any thought beyond that, his processor still flashing the image of the thing in the tube across his optics, despite him having moved away._

_The thing, in the tube, it was—or had been— a human. Optimus' spark clenched and his tank was making a game effort to evacuate his body. A human, a HUMAN! The beings he'd sworn to protect, its—_**their**_ body mutilated and desecrated by the Decepticons for some sick experiment. That poor soul, were they even still alive? He prayed they weren't, that they were being spared the pain and horrors their body was being put through. He never suspected Decepticons would stoop this low, not even Megatron. Why would they do this, they saw Humans, all organics, as weak, pointless, why use them in this way?_

_Optimus could see the other tubes from the corners of his optics. The same, all the same, thirty some odd humans, innocent humans, lost to a war they didn't even know about, to a faction who's morals were so corrupt it made murderous thoughts spring up in Optimus' own processor. _

_Optimus' distress was interrupted by a new sound, ped steps and voices. He let his battle instincts take over, secreting himself between two of the terrible glowing objects. He wanted to get out of there, comm. Ratchet and get himself back to base, but he refused to let whatever the Cons were doing continue. He owed it to these unknown humans to destroy this place, and if possible bury their tormentors along with it._

"…_is proceeding on schedule." One of the voices, a vehicon Optimus guessed, was reporting._

"_Good, good." The second voice was unmistakable, its gravely wining tones obviously those of Starscream. "It was about time the worthless parasites on this planet were good for something."_

"_yes sir." The vehicon responded, their steps becoming louder as they entered the cavern. Optimus made sure he was hidden as far back as possible, avoiding the urge to cringe as one of his shoulders brushed against some of the wires connected to the tube next to him._

_The ped steps halted._

"_Sir, it might not be my place to ask, but why?"_

_There was a small pause which Optimus was willing to bet that Starscream was only doing for dramatic effect._

"_These pests," there was a small screech of one of his claws across the surface of one of the tubes. "It is remarkable how similar their feeble DNA is to our CNA. Alter a few things here and there, add some special chemicals, and they could be almost identical. Of course there is a little more than that, but I won't bore you with the details."_

"_Yes Sir, but I'm still not clear on why…"_

"_For soldiers, my friend. Expendable soldiers, ones those puny Autobots won't be able to fire upon once they learn what they are. Imagine them offlining a contingent of them, and then discovering they murdered some those they'd sworn to protect. Those soft-sparked weaklings will be at my—our mercy. Of course they won't be on a true cybertronians level, but there are billions more on this wretched planet to fill the ranks should any fall; that's what makes them so expendable." There was a slight shrug in Starscream's voice, revealing his own apathy._

_Optimus stiffened at Starscream's callous words. So this was who was to blame for this—this monstrosity! He felt a boiling well of rage begin to build in his spark, one that he almost never felt outside of the battle field, but he kept it in check. He was well accustomed to the detrimental effect anger could have on one's actions; he'd seen plenty of soldiers let it lead their actions, and then get offlined because of it. No, he didn't need the anger right now, he needed to stay hidden._

_Starscream and his vehicon escort resumed walking, their steps coming steadily in Optimus' direction._

"_Sir, should we report their progress to lord Megatron?" Another vehicon called from a little farther off._

"_Eh, no, no, I will inform Megatron myself of the experiment's progress, you just continue on with your work."_

_Optimus listened intently, easily picking up on what Starscream really meant by his desire to inform his master himself. This was a power play; Starscream was building an army for himself, something Megatron obviously knew nothing about. Optimus' spark burned fiercely, but in his processor he was already forming a plan. If Starscream didn't want the other Decepticons to know about this, then that meant if he was attacked he wouldn't be able to call in reinforcements, not without risking exposing himself. They were getting ever closer to Optimus' hiding place, he wouldn't be able to stay there long. However, since Starscream had a limit on how many troops he had, if Optimus attacked quick enough then he could escape back through the twisting maze of caves he'd arrived from, and hopefully be able to lose his pursuers long enough to get his own reinforcements. _

_Optimus glanced at the tubes on either side of him, brief images of their contents flashing through his processor. This whole set up needed to be destroyed, but Optimus remained unsure. He knew that the ones here were beyond saving, but still he resisted the thought of perpetrating their final destruction._

_No time to consider it now, though, as the Decepticons were nearly upon him, forcing Optimus to make his move. He lunged out, taking his enemies by surprise with a rapid burst of laser fire._

_The ensuing fight passed as a blur, finally slamming back to its proper speed as Optimus was thrown back into the tube machinery._

_All of Optimus' systems lit up as electricity and pain filled his circuits. It was unimaginably painful, and the pain was growing. He felt the energy attack his systems, locking his servomotors in place, working its way through to his spark, building all the while. He couldn't move, couldn't think, and he could barely see what was going on around him. He released a scream, or what he thought was a scream, as the electrical charge reached its peak, white noise blanketing his audios as his optics shorted out._

_All of the energy released, sending a massive wave of feedback through Optimus form, every single system within him firing off at once, even as he remained locked in place. His spark spasmed at the excess, something infinitely more painful than the electricity that was filling the rest of him, and through it he could just barely feel something flowing into it, something different from the coursing energy. He wanted to scream again, but he couldn't, the electricity and the energy releasing for what felt like an age, but what could have been a moment. He wanted it to stop, but the pain was just getting worse, and for now he forgot about being surrounded by enimies, about everything._

_Something brushed against his face-plate…_

Optimus jolted awake, the feel of the remembered pain still tainting his systems.

He didn't recognize where he was at first, it was not the cave, but soon he realized he was on his berth in his room, and he became aware of a small, soft hand on his face-plate. He looked down trying to ignore the fading buzz in his circuits. Looking back up at him was the third human, her tiny hand brushing lightly against his cheek as she perched as close to his helm as she could. Behind her the others were gathered, standing on his chest-plate right over his spark. They all looked concerned, their worry showing in their eyes as they gazed into his optics. Vaguely Optimus noted that this was the first time he'd ever seen them all together, but his attention was drawn away to the little female running her comforting hand along his plating.

"We were worried," She said, not stopping the gentle touches. "You were hurting, and scared, and we were worried."

"We were scared, so we woke you up." The sixth human chimed in.

"Are you alright?" The first human asked.

Optimus blinked at them. Their tired, worried, slightly frightened eyes gazed back, and he could practically feel their concern for him weighing on his spark. He regretted worrying them, even if he had no real say in the matter. He wanted to reassure them, to tell them he was fine, to calm their nerves, but for some reason he couldn't get the words past his vocalizer.

He could still feel the edges of the nightmarish memory clinging to his mind, threatening to overtake him. The sights, sounds, and images still playing in an unsettling loop in his helm as if he'd only just experienced them. Nightmares were nothing new to him, he'd done and seen too much in the war for them to be anything but uncommon during his recharge cycles, but this was different, it was only too real, and it left Optimus with a feeling he had yet to pinpoint in his spark.

He felt… shaken.

He was still trying to answer the humans, but now he didn't know what to say. He was unaccustomed to these sorts of feelings, he'd not experienced them in a very, very long time; it was disconcerting. They only served to shake him more, robbing him completely of speech.

And yet, somehow the humans seemed to understand. They came forward to join the female, their hands pressing gently against his plating, offering him comfort. He was conscious of a warm feeling building in his spark, and somehow he knew it came from them. He gave them a soft smile in return, optics slowly shuttering as he was lulled back into recharge.

The entire next day they stayed with him; not one of them disappeared.

0o

The first human's name was Skipper.

Since it felt wrong to continuously label these humans with merely numbers, and after Optimus was alerted to their lack of names, he'd endeavored to give them suitable titles.

The second human's name was Arthur. The third's was Victoria. The fourth's Cor. Benjamin, James, Elizabeth, Mary, Alexander, and Catherin were their names, by order of appearance.

He'd offered to let them choose their designations for themselves, but they'd immediately turned him down. They'd told Optimus that they wanted him to choose their names, an honor that both flattered him with the strength of their trust in him, and flustered him because his knowledge of human nomenclature was exceptionally lacking. He'd been briefly tempted to simply use cybertronian designations, but had felt that was somehow unfair to the humans, who were already forced to contend with such an unnatural situation. So he had instead opted to go through the human internet, which wasn't an all that unagreeable task, looking for names that he felt best fit his companions. He, truthfully, hadn't done too badly, when he had finally decided on names he believed suited them well they were all incredibly excited, and had amazingly agreed whole heartedly to their name selections.

It was like the giving of the names was a sort of catalyst, actually, as if they became more real because of it, and Optimus discovered things he hadn't really known before.

The humans still had no memories of the time before joining him, but there was a subconscious awareness of some things about either themselves, or others.

Arthur was the oldest, being somewhere in his early 40s, while Victoria was the youngest at 15.

Cor and Benjamin were friends, and they still remembered their friendship now.

Mary was second oldest and loved rock music, Elizabeth, who was in her 20s, hated it.

Alexander and Catherine were related, siblings, Catherine being the second youngest.

James was much like Raphael in disposition as well as being very innately curious.

Skipper was very bold and exhibited all the traits of a leader, in fact the others all did seem to consider her the leader of their little group.

Actually, it was more like a family.

Despite their varying ages, ethnicities, and features the humans treated each other as a sort of familial unit. They had a tendency to call one another brother or sister, depending on which 'sibling' was being spoken of. Skipper, for her personality, was considered the elder sister, Victoria the youngest, while the others' titles altered with whichever person was speaking. Internally Optimus was rather amused by it all, drawing mental comparisons between them and his Autobot family, and he figured he stood in much the same position for both.

Imagine his surprise when James came up one day and called him big brother.

It wasn't just James either, all of the others had developed the habit of referring to him as such. He knew they knew his correct title, but the humans seemed content to refer to him in the other manner, and to treat him like it too. Optimus had to admit it was… nice, not having to be the ever wise, but perpetually distant leader so often expected of him. It was as close as he would probably ever get to feeling like Orion Pax again, something quite relieving to his war weary spark.

Was this how the others felt with their human charges?

Optimus had watched the others with their human friends from the beginning, watched Arcee's icy exterior fade, Bulkhead finding a kindred spirit, Bee acting more his age, and even Ratchet's gruff disposition toward their forced situation fade. Optimus had watched, but had been unable to take part.

Now, though, it was like he'd been given his own chance to experience the balm that this young organic species could provide.

The Autobots would always be his first priority, his first family, but this little secret had become intertwined with it. They co-existed, neither at war with the other, the second only serving to augment the first.

His second family.

0o

Everything was going so well.

The humans had stopped disappearing whenever the other bots came around; they'd stopped disappearing in general. They still followed Optimus about as he performed his duties, but their dispositions were far more animated then they had been, more willing to ask questions about the others, or about the war as they wandered about, exploring corners of the base where Optimus generally didn't fit.

They'd also developed the habit of shadowing the other humans; Optimus had looked up from some task more than once to see Jack, Miko and Raf doing something in the designated human's area, while one of Optimus' humans leaned over their shoulders. They seemed fascinated with the children, but that fascination was tempered by an aversion that was twice as strong as the one they held for the other Autobots. Sure they would follow the children about, but whether it was because of their own nature, or the fact that the children were, for lack of a batter term, real to everyone else, they did little more than watch them.

'Or run from them', Optimus thought, as a shrieking note interrupted the calm of the base.

Miko had apparently had a bad day and was now taking it out on her guitar, and the audios of the entire population of the base. What made it worse was that Bulkhead, the only one who could possibly attempt to silence her, was out on a scouting mission, and, with a storm blowing outside no one could make any attempts to leave. Of course Arcee and Jack had tried to barter for use of the ground bridge, but Ratchet had only half-regretfully turned them down; if he had to suffer Miko's racket, so did everyone else.

Optimus was trying to drown out the so called 'music' as best he could, calling on his vast, seemingly endless supply of calm and patience to do so. There was a small knock against one of his peds, pulling him out of the attempt at focus.

"Big brother?"

He looked down, seeing Victoria with one hand on his leg.

"Yes?" he answered, softly enough that the other bots wouldn't hear him speak.

Victoria was alone, the other humans having scattered to random parts of the base as soon as Miko pulled out the amp for her guitar. She looked nervous, and a little frightened, standing there all by herself.

"Can-can you lift me up?" she pointed up at his left shoulder.

Optimus could feel her discomfort, which only spiked every time Miko hit a chord. Victoria was not a big fan of loud _anything_, and Miko's music was at the top of that list.

He glanced around; making sure no one was looking his way, before he stooped to allow Victoria to climb into his servo. From there he placed her on his shoulder, easing her into what had become her favorite spot.

"Where are the others?" he asked, beginning to walk away from the noise.

"Most of them are hiding in your room, the walls being relatively sound proof and all. Skipper, Mary, and Alexander went exploring again and I think they're in the lower levels." Was the response.

The humans had an uncanny ability to sense each other, their locations and such, an ability Optimus had a bit of trouble honing in on.

Optimus strolled toward his room, the guitar sounds growing fainter until he crossed the threshold and shut the door, blocking it out almost completely.

Six sets of eyes looked up at him from where they sat on top of his berth, gathered around a couple data-pads that he'd left out for such a purpose. James, Elizabeth, Cor, and Benjamin were perusing one that had several still shots of Cybertron before the war, and captions that Optimus had graciously converted into their approximate English translation. Arthur and Catherine were sitting next to the other pad, which was a more scaled up version of a popular earth tale that Optimus rather enjoyed.

When Optimus and Victoria entered they all stopped what they were doing to look up at them, as well as cover their ears during the brief interlude where the door was open and Miko's 'music' rent the air. When the door was shut they all lowered their hands, and Elizabeth smirked up at Optimus as he lowered Victoria to the berth.

"Couldn't take it any more either, big brother?" She grinned. "Or you little sister?"

Victoria nodded while Optimus' remained relatively impassive.

"I don't believe I am the one to judge Miko's bad mood." He replied, sitting on the edge of his berth, his joints giving a small sigh as they relaxed.

"Well you know what they say about bad moods." Benjamin chimed in, glancing up from where he was studying a picture of Iacon.

"You got to spread them around." Cor followed his friend's statement.

"I wish she'd spread it in some other way though." Catherine sighed as Victoria came over to join her and Arthur.

"You and me both." Elizabeth nodded her head. "Almost makes you start to hate music."

"_If music be the food of love, play on!_" Arthur quoted, gesturing vaguely. He was pretty sure he'd previously been a drama teacher of some sort.

"Oh, don't tell Miko that!" Benjamin joked, but there was an awkward sort of pause after he said it.

"Why are the others down in the lower levels?" Victoria dispelled any building tension with her usual ease.

"Uh, I think Alexander said something about seeing the marks the scraplet infestation left; Ratchet's repaired everything but the lowest levels by this point.

All of the humans shuddered, and a small chill found its way into Optimus' spark. The scraplet infestation had happened a while before the humans had come to him, but Optimus had told them of it, and what a swarm of scraplets could do to a bot. The humans did not like the thought of something that could harm him, or even take him offline, so easily. Victoria left her data-pad, followed by Catherine, coming up to Optimus' side and pressing herself into him. Catherine did the same and they were quickly joined by the others. They did this sometimes, as if checking he was alright, and truly Optimus appreciated the gesture.

The door gave a hiss as it slid open, revealing the last three humans back from their exploration. The ones around Optimus looked over at them, but didn't move to cover their ears this time, even with Miko's noise still echoing through the halls. The Humans in the doorway looked back at them; Mary looked a little frightened, while Skipper and Alexander looked concerned. They saw what was going on up on the berth and hurried over to join, stopping by Optimus' peds. They too leaned against him, or rested their hands on his plating.

It was Alexander who broke the silence.

"I can't imagine—don't want to imagine what we saw down there happening to you." He muttered, but everyone heard him clearly. "It's one thing when you go into battle, there you can defend yourself, but that…"

"There would be no defense." Mary had a small echo of fear in her voice.

"We don't like it when you to get hurt." Skipper said, voicing all their thoughts. "Not just because you've been hurt, but because we are unable to do anything."

The all of them bowed their heads, finally acknowledging their secret shame. Optimus' spark ached, with his own mourning for them as well as their own sadness.

"You are our safety, we know you won't let anything hurt us." Skipper looked up into Optimus' optics. "We just wish we could return the favor."

Optimus gave them all a sad smile, trying to put as much conviction and comfort into his next words as possible.

"You do not need to worry so." He told them. "You're very presence is more soothing to any pains or worries I might have than anything I have ever before experienced. You have already returned your 'favor' at least tenfold."

All of the humans lifted their heads, their eyes finding his optics as their mouths tilted to mimic his own expression.

They basked in each other's presence, letting the natural sounds of their bodies, their heartbeats, his spark pulses, fill the silence.

A ping on the comm. interrupted the moment, bring Optimus out of his present sense of calm and back to the real world.

"Yes?" He answered in his usual neutral monotone.

"Prime, we need you, Bulkhead's found something." Ratchet said without preamble.

Optimus nodded, even though he knew Ratchet couldn't see it, standing up to his full height while listening to a short explanation from the obviously irate medic.

"Understood." He ended the connection, turning to look over at the humans.

They smiled up at him, jumping down from the berth as he walked away, back to the main room.

He couldn't help but smile back.

0o

All of them were dead.

0o

When Optimus had first awoken after being rescued from the experiment cave the others had told him it was destroyed. As they had been leaving the others had witnessed some of the Decepticon's stray shots impact the ceiling, causing a cave in. The entire cave system had proceeded to collapse, burying everything. Once he'd recovered enough Optimus had sent the others to inspect the damage, discover if anything had survived; they didn't find anything. Optimus had prayed that the whole experiment had been obliterated.

His hopes were dashed when he heard what Bulkhead had discovered.

Optimus and the others, sans Ratchet, quickly and quietly exited the ground bridge. Bulkhead greeted them by motioning them to silence before pointing around the large boulder they crouched behind. Optimus felt his spark practically freeze at the sight of a setup completely identical to the one that was supposedly destroyed.

"I heard some of their conversations." Bulkhead whispered, pointing at a couple vehicon guards. "They said that this is the same stuff from the last place, and whatever's in those tubes is almost completely 'developed', or something along those lines."

"_What are they_?" Bee asked, optics wide with worry.

"Don't know, they didn't say…" Bulkhead glanced over at Optimus, and so did the others, their gazes questioning.

"Do you know boss bot? I mean you saw these things last."

Optimus shook his helm, fighting against flashbacks of the tube's occupants; he didn't want the others to know. The others took it as meaning he didn't know what they were dealing with, not catching his rather obvious reluctance.

"Well, whatever this is, it can't be good." Arcee spoke, summoning her blasters. "We need to put a stop to this now!"

They all looked to Optimus again, each drawing their weapons. Optimus forced away the distracting thoughts, allowing his battle mask to snap in place and his own weapons to draw. He gave a nod, all of them getting into battle stances.

"Autobots Roll Out!" Optimus commanded, taking the lead as they all left their hiding place, firing on the unsuspecting vehicons.

They fell, but more rushed forward to take their place. Starscream must have beefed up security on his little 'project' after Optimus' interference last time. Optimus had yet to see the cowardly seeker, but that didn't mean he wasn't here, or that the vehicons wouldn't contact him with news of an attack.

"Big brother!" A shout echoed behind him, causing him to round and shoot the vehicon that'd been trying to sneak up on him. Skipper stood on a rock formation not far away, giving him a thumbs up.

Optimus smiled underneath his mask. His humans often appeared like this in battle; they functioned as extra pairs of eyes, catching things Optimus might otherwise miss, or warning him of an approaching enemy. The fact that only he could see, hear, or touch them also leant to his advantage, and meant they were always safe from harm.

Optimus continued to blow away vehicons, occasionally stopping to aid one of his comrades, or retracting his blasters to draw his blades, all the while paying careful attention to the shouted warnings of his human companions.

Optimus and the others were rapidly whittling away the tide of vehicons, reinforcements coming slower and slower as the Autobots plowed through the crush of bodies. Just like last time the Vehicons couldn't call in any reinforcements from outside the caves per their orders, so it wouldn't be long before they all fell.

Optimus was providing cover fire for Arcee as she dispatched a couple vehicons with her blades, when a sharp gust of wind and heat whizzed by his helm, followed by shouts of alarm from his companions, both bot and human. He dodged, just barely, and the object rushed by him to impact the far wall of the cave.

"What is with you Autobots?! Just can't resist trying to ruin my plans, sticking your olfactory sensors into everything!" Starscream's gravelly voice screeched as he flew in overhead, forcing the Autobots to duck for cover as he fired on them.

He transformed and landed in his usual showy manner off to the side of what remained of his troops, near the main computer hub that ran the entire experiment. His leering red eyes contrasted the twisted greenish-yellow light that played across his armor, making him appear far more sinister than usual, or maybe it was just Optimus' knowledge of the depths of depravity the seeker had allowed himself to sink to being broadcast into the real world. Optimus felt a shiver that wasn't his own arch across his spark, spotting the stricken, frightened looks on the faces of his human companions.

Optimus' servo clenched, one of his blades coming out with a snap.

Starscream was scowling at them all, the entire fight having come to a stop with his arrival, the Autobots warry of the new threat, the vehicons awaiting their next orders.

"You Autobots…" He started to say something, but was interrupted by a small ping from the computer consol. He glanced at it, the scowl on his face warping into a twisted smirk.

"Vehicons, fall back." He ordered, his voice impossibly calm.

The vehicons looked surprised, now just as warry as the Autobots, but they pulled back regardless, exiting through the tunnel from which over half of them had originally come.

"You Autobots, you want to know what I'm doing so badly?" Starscream drew the Autobot's away from the retreating vehicons and back to him. He pressed a small button on the keyboard. "Well, I'll gladly give you a sample."

He laughed as a sharp hiss sounded, followed by others, the eerie light flickering causing the Autobots to turn in alarm to face the rows of gigantic tubes. The lights on the machines connecting them flashed as the strange liquid inside began to ooze out on to the ground, lapping at the Autobot's peds.

"While I would love to watch you get scrapped, Autobots, I believe it would be safer for me to leave you to your fate." Starscream laughed, transforming and blasting off along the tunnel the vehicons had left through.

The Autobots didn't watch him go, they were too concerned with the rising wave of greenish-yellow liquid flooding the cave floor, and the rapidly blinking lights flashing from the machines.

"_What do we do?"_ Bee buzzed.

Optimus went to answer, but at that moment the machines all flashed at once and released a massive electrical pulse which flowed through the liquid around the Autobots and into their bodies.

Optimus' audios filled with screaming, but not that of his troops, as pain enveloped his spark. The humans were in pain, that pain being feed back into Optimus' spark as they screamed. Optimus' optics flared white, his vocal processor shorting out from the sheer torture of it all, rendering him mute as the screams turned to deafening shrieks.

The charge, the energy was attacking them. Through the pain Optimus could sense something trying to tear them away . The bodies, _their_ bodies, they were still connected. The electricity was trying to bring them online; their minds and their souls were tethered to Optimus, but somehow they were still tied to their old forms, and the energy was drawing them back along those invisible lines.

Optimus nearly collapsed as one by one he felt their bonds with him snap and their sounds fall silent. Each one was a backwash of agony, sharp, piercing through Optimus' spark, leaving a vast emptiness in its wake. The paralyzing electricity came to an end as the last one was torn away, finally freeing Optimus' vocalizer as well as his joints.

He gasped a vent, his sight blurry, just like the last time. He could see and hear the others taking similar pulls of air to cool their overheated, overtaxed systems.

"Is everyone alright?" He heard himself ask, but he wasn't sure if he'd actually said anything. Silence was pressing heavily on his audios, and the yawning abyss that was his spark right now felt like a black hole. The others responded, and he just barely heard himself answer back, but the words that reached him seemed jumbled, lost. He tried to focus, to bring his mind back from the edge of the abyss, trying to force his sorrow away as he'd done many times during this impossible war.

Suddenly the empty part of his spark flared with pain as a loud click and hiss was heard, fiercely yanking all of Optimus back to the present situation, and he finally remembered what was going on.

He and the other Autobots saw the exterior of the tubes, now empty of their fluids, rise up and away, releasing their inhabitants. No one moved, watching the now open apparatus for whatever was about to emerge. Nothing happened; moments passed, and nothing happened. Arcee made to step forward, weapons drawn, when Optimus threw out an arm to block her way. His optics narrowed as another echo of pain flared through him, and a small sound of shifting metal was heard.

Something reached its way out of the nearest tube, slowly wrapping it's twisted fingers around the edge of it's former prison.

The Autobots took a good couple steps back, their peds sloshing through the small pool of still glowing liquid. The thing in the tube gripped the sides, pulling itself slowly away from the confined space. More sounds of shifting metal as the others followed the first's example, pulling themselves out into the cave air with an agonizing slowness. The first one completed it's own extraction, taking its first steps into the liquid on the cave floor. It rose, smoothly into an almost standing position, its limbs dangling down as it's helm turned the Autobot's direction. Its optics met those of the Autobots, and they were able to see the creature in its entirety.

It was almost like a protoform, lacking any real armor, interior systems showing through to the outside, but it was not a protoform. It was twisted, bent, with skeletal limbs that seemed too long dangling down like dead weight, it's legs warped so it couldn't stand straight. It stooped, its chest too broad, its legs too thin, its back hunched. It had thin clawed fingers, but they were of greatly varying lengths, and from what they could see of its peds they were of a similar deformity. It had almost no neck, it had a face-plate, but no real helm, its processor and other parts laid practically bare. It's faceplate was warped, having a wide, gaping mouth that seemed unable to close, and small optics which flickered and stuttered at regular intervals, meaning the creature was more than half blind. Parts of it sparked and fizzed as it shifted, its joints groaning in protest. It looked like a dead thing, all of it's plating a sickening gunmetal grey color while other patches of it were covered in a pale, skin like substance.

It stared at them, and they could see the others look their way as well, their partially blind eyes flickering eerily.

Suddenly the first one lunged.

The others followed suit immediately after, swarming the Autobots with a speed that seemed impossible from their twisted frames, awful shrieking noises escaping lipless mouths as the moved. They bodily slammed into Optimus and the others, forcing the Autobots apart as they fired upon their attackers, trying to keep them back as far as possible.

"What the slag are these things!?" Bulkhead shouted, throwing a couple away from him, only for them to spring back up.

Optimus wasn't even bothering to consider answering, trying to focus through the noise as he batted away some of them with his blaster, the wave of them pushing him back. One jumped at him, and as Optimus knocked it away another one leaped off the ground and slammed into his chest. He went down, the creature shrieking all the way, creating a large splash as he landed. The creature screamed triumphantly as it dug its claws into Optimus' chest armor. Optimus grunted, trying to force the thing off, when he had another flare of spark pain.

Something barreled into the creature on top of him, grabbing it and throwing it a good several yards, allowing Optimus to sit up, one servo clutching his damaged chest.

Another creature stood in front of him, but it wasn't attacking, instead it stared up at him with its dying optics.

"_Big brother…"_ a voice echoed in his helm, followed by another twinge of pain, and a small shriek from the creature.

Optimus' optics widened a fraction, seeing the soul trapped within the monstrous shell.

"Victoria…"

More pain and a louder shriek.

"_Big brother, it hurts…"_ She cried, her voice laced with agony. Optimus looked up at the other creatures, seeing his humans among them, feeling their pain.

"_Please, help us.."_

"_Please make it stop…"_

"_We are dying…"_ Their voices came to him, filing his processor.

"_Big brother, you need to end this."_ That was Skipper's voice.

"_This is killing us, slowly…" _James whispered from somewhere.

"_Please, big brother, we don't want to be used to hurt you, or the other Autobots." _Elizabeth pleaded.

"_We don't want to be used by the Decepticons." _Arthur, Cor, and Alexander spoke together.

"_You need to end this big brother." _Skipper spoke again. _"Before we hurt someone, please, end this."_

Optimus could feel the truth in their words, but he shook his helm.

"No, I…"

"_You can't save us big brother." _Skipper's voice was way too calm._ "No one can save us. Only you can free us big brother, please."_

Optimus' spark and mind rebelled against what he was being told; it couldn't be true, there had to be a way to free them from this.

But there wasn't, he could feel it, through the pain and disorientation he could feel it. They were fighting, fighting to remain in charge of themselves, but the Decepticon coding preprogramed into the bodies was slowly taking over. They would not last long.

"_Please…"_

This was the only way to save them; the only way to save his Autobots, his humans, any other innocents Starscream might turn his sights on, all of them.

Some of the other creatures finally noticed Optimus, coming his way. Victoria was still there, she tried to keep them off him, but she went down easily. Optimus loaded his blaster, but couldn't bring himself to fire. He knew what he needed to do, years of war allowed part of him to accept it, but he wanted to make it as quick as possible. He knew his humans would feel each of their 'siblings' die, just as he would, and he didn't want to put them through that.

As more of the creatures came at him he was forced back, blocking their thrusts and lunges, his movements slowed by the swirl of liquid trapping his peds. He took a step back and was met with resistance. He looked over his shoulder and caught sight of one of the machines, lights still active and blinking. An idea formed in his processor. The creatures attacking him were not true cybertronians, they were twisted mutilated hybrids, meaning their circuitry was much weaker than that a real cybertronian's. That meant their circuits would be unable to regulate a large charge of electricity, which would overload and burn out their systems, destroying them. The strange liquid they all stood strut deep in would easily conduct the charge, catching all of the creatures at the same time. It would be quick, maybe not painless, but quick, and Starscream would be unable to use their bodies for any more of his plans.

Optimus looked over at the machine, optics glancing over the massive bundles of wires and cables. The initial charge that brought them to life had been rather mild; Optimus would need a much greater charge. The creatures were still on him, slashing and raking at his armor. With a roar he threw them all off, tossing them as far as possible before turning back to the machine, his blade shooting out, and cleaving clean through one of the largest bundles of cables.

"Autobot's, get back!" He ordered, glimpsing the slightly battered forms of his soldiers retreating back toward their point of entry. Making sure they were out of the way he moved into the press of creatures whose attention was now solely focused on him. The cable sparked rapidly in his servo as he rushed them, and they began to rush him. One of them was right in front of him, and for a brief second he saw who it was.

Skipper's and Optimus' optics locked as he jammed the cable into her chest.

The electricity shot through her body like a lightning rod, flowing into the liquid below her and out to the others, their backs going rigid and their voices all rising in a simultaneous resounding shriek. The energy coursed through Optimus as well, but he ignored it, absorbed in the pain that tore through his spark like a blade. He felt them, all of them, as their bodies convulsed and their circuits fried away, until finally they couldn't take anymore.

There was a spark beat when everything seemed to freeze and the pain to fade, and Optimus heard a soft voice, or maybe several voices whisper in his audios.

"_Thank you."_

At the same moment all of their sparks went out at once.

Optimus spark broke, the agony wracking his frame.

They were all dead.

0o

0o

The entire experiment, the cave, the bodies, they were all gone.

The Autobots had destroyed it, igniting an energon vein that they discovered embedded in the walls of the cavern. All of it went up in a fiery explosion as the Autobots retreated through the ground bridge.

Nothing survived but the memories.

Optimus watched the others celebrate their victory, telling their human companions about the fight, about the creatures, praising Optimus' quick thinking, and telling of the creatures' final moments.

"Woah, freaky!" He heard Miko exclaim with excitement. "Wish I could have seen it!"

"No you don't!" Bulkhead told her, sounding horrified by the idea.

"What do you think they were?" Raf's voice was both curious and slightly frightened.

"Whatever they were, they're dead now. We don't have to worry about them ever again." Arcee answered, working her newly repaired joints.

Their words were like acid on a wound, burning their way across Optimus' shattered spark. They were celebrating; they did not know what it was they had faced, what it was Optimus had killed. Their words, their actions, they were painful, but Optimus couldn't bear to tell them the truth.

He did not want to share this pain. They were happy, speaking with their human friends; they felt this was a victory. They _couldn't_ know; they would never know that Optimus had been forced to take innocent lives, innocent _human_ lives.

No, he wouldn't tell them.

He saw Bee reenacting the final stages of the battle for the children, jamming an imaginary cable into the chest of an invisible enemy, emitting a shrill noise to mimic their death noises.

They wouldn't know what it was they'd fought, but that didn't make their celebration any less painful.

Optimus left them to their revelry, turning away without a sound and moving back toward the hallway, heading for his berth room.

No one called him back, and he was left completely to his thoughts. He kept his back straight, his face-plate calm, and his helm up until he had crossed into his berth-room, slid the door shut behind him, and entered the code to lock it.

He stood in the center of his room, alone. Here Optimus didn't need to be the strong leader; he didn't need to be the pillar that being both the Prime and a Commander demanded of him. He allowed all that to slide from his shoulders, his helm bowing, his face-plate falling out of its neutral expression as one servo came up to rest over his spark.

He mourned.

He felt his spark as it pulsed slowly beneath his plating. The emptiness and the pain had faded since the cavern, turning into a sort of numbness, enveloping him. But even so, every beat of his spark was a reminder.

He'd mourned many times in this long, long war; far too many times. Soldiers, friends, enemies, innocents, he'd mourned for them all, and it only seemed to get harder.

He looked down at his servo, his optics dim.

The memories replayed in his processor.

He missed them, their faces, their voices, just the feel of them there; the numbness felt haunting, wrong.

He glanced at his berth, noticing the data pads from earlier were still there. He shifted, unconsciously moving that way. He stopped as he reached it, staring down at the data pads, the servo over his spark coming to rest at his side. The pads glowed back up at him, one with a glittering still of Iacon, the other a colorful illustration of bright light and smiling faces.

Optimus' dim optics flickered briefly, and then he bent, scooping up the two pads in his servos as he turned and sat down on the berth.

Optimus looked at the data-pads, turning them slowly over in his servos, only half seeing them. Memories, sorrow, pain; Optimus sighed, gently turning off the pads and placing them out of the way. He laid back on the berth, his optics darkening, his overtaxed mind and spark finally catching up with his frame. The memories still played, even as everything began to blur; their smiles, their touch, the sound of their whispers in the cave, thanking him for what he'd done.

Optimus drifted off into oblivion, his last thoughts a silent prayer that wherever their souls had gone, that their ghosts were at peace.

0o

0o

It was one of the darkest hours of the night when Optimus jerked awake with a gasp, yanked from reliving his crime, moment-for-moment, for the fifth or sixth time. His optics shot open, his vents slightly struggling to pull in air, his spark thrumming quickly.

He stared up at his ceiling, letting his systems return to normal operation. His glowing optics cast pools of light on the shadowy ceiling above him, the only light in the entire room. As his vents quieted and his spark slowed he could feel the numbness return, only it seemed different, strangely calm.

He was slipping back into recharge, the light from his optics cutting out, and he blearily wondered what the new feeling in his spark was, and what had initially pulled him from slumber.

In the darkness he felt something brush against his face-plate.

In an instant Optimus was completely awake, optics wide and focused on the place from which he knew the touch had come.

Bright eyes, smiling faces, practically glowing with a luminance of their own filled his vision. All of them, Optimus felt the numbness break, all of them, and more; so weak, but there just the same. They held his wide optics in their joyful gaze, tears brimming in the edges.

He couldn't speak, couldn't move, but he didn't need to. They came to him, rushing up to place their hands on his plating, their arms spread wide. His own arms came up, his servos curling around them as he returned their embrace, his spark thrilling.

In the earliest hours of the morning, still bathed in the silence and nightly shadows, the denizens of the room clung tightly to each other, and they wept.

0o

FIN


End file.
